Ch 12 pt 3

Gilderoy smiled broadly, using a bit of Harry's magic to move his hair a bit as if in a breeze. He was all set to launch into a long-winded description, undoubtedly boring, of his books when Harry stomped down on him. He was not going to let Gilderoy make a fool of him in front of his favourite professor!

"Please, call me Gil, Minerva. And, yes, I'm not nearly as much a prat as I was in Hogwarts ten years ago. I've changed. While I love to see my name in print, there are more important things than that."

She arched her eyebrows in surprise.

"To tell you the truth, I think I've personally accomplished more since I started teaching here at Hogwarts than anything I did since I graduated." His smile softened. "Nothing I've done before can match Mr. Longbottom's expression when he launched that magnificent patronus in the Great Hall. Nor the smile on Miss Lovegood's face when she's with her friends at the Gryffindor table." He paused a moment, his lips quirking into a smirk. "And Miss Granger's expressions when Miss Lovegood starts talking about Nargles or Crumple-Horned Snorkacks are just too amusing."

He noticed his tea partner suppressing a smile.

"And the Defence Against Dark Arts classes! I think you'll see the scores at year's end for all the students to be their highest in forty years. Did you see last night that all the First, Second, Third, and Fourth year students can cast the Protego and hold it for at least five seconds? On September First, only some of the Fourth Year students could do that. One of my goals this year is to have all the Fourth Year and above students cast a Patronus. Maybe not corporeal, but better than just a mist.

"Love is the key to the Patronus, you know. Not happiness. A key mistake in teaching that's been happening for a thousand years. Can you imagine?" He shook his head.

"The muggles have a saying, Minerva, 'Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat every day.' That's what I'm doing with my class. I'm teaching an entire generation how to survive. And should Voldemort return, or another Dark Lord appear, we shan't have a bunch of spineless timid mice demanding a half-blood pre-teen save them."

"For Merlins sake, each and every Wizard and Witch is carrying a deadly weapon! A dozen Death Eaters appear in Diagon Alley with a hundred Wizards shopping there. If all the Wizards pulled out their wands and shouted stupefy, the Death Eaters would all be captured! Instead, they scream, run, and end up dead. Half the people in my books could have saved themselves if they only took two seconds to think and used their wands!"

He leaned back in his chair. "Sorry, I didn't mean to get preachy."

She was staring at him in disbelief. "What happened to you, Gil? I remember you in my classes, and you were nothing like this." She shook her head. "You were a terrible student, to tell the truth. If you couldn't see a way for a spell to bring you attention, you didn't study it." Her eyes narrowed as she stared at him. "The Gilderoy I knew could never have handled those two duels as well as you did. Nor taught a class with nearly the skill that you have. You're like a completely different person."

He shifted uncomfortably. She was hitting far too close to the mark. He glanced over at Sinistra and Snape. They were engrossed in their food, Snape sullenly attacking it as if it had cast aspersions upon his mother's fidelity and Sinistra eating daintily but seemingly miffed at her date's lack of conversation. Perhaps she was listening, to them. Perhaps not.

Softly, so that only Minerva could hear, he said, "I met Mr. Potter this summer. You may recall an article in The Daily Prophet about how I found him in Flourish and Blotts, and then mysteriously collapsed?"

She nodded, intrigued.

"Something happened. Something touched me. I daren't say more because people would think I am quite mad." He paused, thinking. He hadn't considered telling anyone about what he was doing. He should be able to do it all himself, but what if there was an accident? He sighed.

"I am not a Seer. It is far too a fuzzy discipline with results that are impossible to analyse with any certainty. While a few gifted individuals can foresee the future, what they see is usually so muddy they cannot explain, and only after the events come to pass do we see how their predictions applied. Bu that day, in Flourish and Blotts, I saw things.

"What I learned, I am still coming to terms with. Terrible times are coming if I do not act. It forced me . . . to reconsider my goals. I spent the last few weeks of the summer revising my . . . experiences." He smiled ruefully at her. "I paid far more attention in class than you professors credited me with. It's just that I didn't see the practical applications of what I knew, so I didn't attempt to impress you with my skills."

He looked up at the ceiling for a moment. "Last year was just a precursor, Minerva, the Troll, the dead Unicorns, Quirrell's possession," he said softly.

"Did the Headmaster tell you about the diary?" She nodded. "That it was aimed at Mr. Potter?" She frowned at that. Perhaps he hadn't made the connection. "That the monster in the Chamber of Secrets, if unchecked, would have sought him out and brought him to the brink of death, just like Quirrell did last year. Did the Headmaster tell you that the creature in the Chamber is a Basilisk? That it uses the pipes in the walls and floors to move around the school? That it is still there?"

He watched her expressions sift from interested, to surprised, to horrified.

"And if you ask the Headmaster about the Basilisk, he will tell you all is well. That the creature is trapped in the Chamber, just as it was fifty years ago. That Hogwarts is the safest place in the world. How can that be true, though?

"Harry Potter almost died four times last year. Any school where the protective enchantments fail to detect the presence of Voldewhore is not what I would call safe — would you? The diadem that I recovered was another version of him, one hidden in Hogwarts for over fifty years. Hidden in Hogwarts. For fifty years.

"This year, yet another Dark artefact carrying a version of Voldewhore made it through the protective enchantments undetected, carried into the school in her robes. Only one student was petrified, unlike the last time someone claimed to have opened the Chamber when it killed Miss Warren. But I do not doubt that by June Mr. Potter would have found himself in a life-or-death struggle with that version of Tom Riddle, Lord Voldemort, if I had not interfered. Can you still call the school the safest place in the England? And what about next year? What horrible disaster is waiting in the wings? Are there going to be flocks of Dementors surrounding the school? Or perhaps a Death Eater whom everyone thinks is dead becomes the D.A.D.A. Professor disguised as a retired Auror?"

She shuddered at each mention of the Dark Lord's name.

"And there is still an evil Wizard concealed within Hogwarts, even as I speak."

She gave him a startled look.

He nodded. "Yes, there is. And I don't mean Professor Snape, either! I shall find him, just you watch. Gilderoy Lockhart's name will grace the front page yet again! And everyone will ask, 'How can Hogwarts be the safest place in England if an evil Wizard, one with the Dark Mark on his arm, can live there, year after year, without being detected? How is that safe for our children?'" He shook his head sadly, and then looked up at her beaming proudly, "But, never fear, for Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League, five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award, and Hogwarts' beloved Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor is here! I will make Hogwarts the safest place in England!

"I found the missing Ravenclaw Diadem, I found Tom Riddle's diary possessing a student, I bought the mandrakes to cure the petrified student six months early, I will find the vile Wizard hiding in Hogwarts, and I will deal with the Basilisk so it can never again threaten the students!"

She stared at him for a long time, then smiled. "I think I like this new version of Gilderoy." By the time they finished dessert, and another glass of wine, things between them were much friendlier.

The carriage ride back to the school was quiet. Lockhart could tell that Snape had bollixed his part of the date, as Sinistra looked unhappy. He would have to make it up to her later.

To his surprise, Minerva, or 'Min' as she asked him to call her, invited him inside her apartment for a nightcap of a small Fire Whisky. "If you tell anyone that I invited you in tonight, I'll make your time here in the castle a living hell," she said softly, finishing hers only moments after he had his.

Gilderoy had grinned happily. "Min, in all the times you've seen me in the newsparchments have you ever seen a story about me with a Witch? Or even a rumour? Maybe the mention of someone I dated once or twice, but never anything more." He scooted closer to her on the couch, "There's a reason for that. I am extremely discrete." He didn't add that he found the obliviate charm worked quite well the next morning, leaving his conquests with the idea that they had a wonderful time the night before but just weren't quite sure with whom. Not that he would be doing that anymore.

She stared at him through lidded eyes, "I'm not looking for anything beyond tonight."

"Neither am I. I've never been monogamous. If you wish, we can be — how do the muggles say it? Ah, yes — friends with benefits, for as long or short a time as you desire. And I will have other friends as well, just so you know. In any case, I'm sure the curse will have me out of here in June, anyway."

She chuckled drily, "There is that."

Gilderoy demonstrated to Harry that he did indeed have skills when it came to women — that it wasn't just that he oblivated the women of any bad feelings they might have had when dawn arrived. Min had nothing to complain about the next morning. And she was just as appreciative of his attentions as most lonely widowed women were. And she had a beautiful smile that took decades off her appearance.

And Harry Potter? He had an average Friday night playing Exploding Snap with Neville, Colin, Hermione, Luna, Susan, and Hannah.